QVSD Breaks Its Silence on the Larson Verdict, With a Statement Defending the District

Four and a half months after a federal jury found the Quillayute Valley School District liable for a hostile work environment, the district finally addressed it in public. 

What the community received Tuesday was not an apology or an action plan. It was a prepared statement, roughly eight minutes, defending the district and stressing the award's size.

The Statement

Board Chair Bill Rohde read it at the end of board member reports, presented, he said, with the board's approval: "That issue was tried to a jury, and now we may comment."

In April, a jury found QVSD liable under the Washington Law Against Discrimination for a hostile work environment, awarded former assistant coach Kari Larson $249,760, rejected her retaliation claims, and cleared Assistant Superintendent Kyle Weakley of negligent supervision.

Tuesday's statement leaned on those defense verdicts, claiming the jury "completely exonerated" the district.

The statement insisted the district "in no way intends to minimize the situation." It closed by disclosing an ongoing personnel matter "related to this situation" it said it cannot discuss, without saying whom it concerns. 

In July, Shannon Gaydeski, demanded the board finish what she described as a reopened investigation of Weekes and not let him resign or retire first, citing the state's "don't pass the trash" law. 

"Cause for Termination"

The statement followed public comment from residents who have appeared at every meeting since the verdict.

Rod Larson, recalled that in July a district graduate, now a QVSD coach, described experiencing Weekes's massages herself, beginning in middle school. 

Trial evidence, he said, included district-presented video of Weekes massaging a high school girl's leg, conduct he said Superintendent Diana Reaume testified was permissible under policy if "for educational purposes." 

Training, oversight, and consequences, he noted, sit with the superintendent and assistant superintendent; the record, he said, shows unsatisfactory performance he suggested the board consider "cause for termination."

A former Forks student, returned to answer a question she said a board member asked after July's meeting: why did she wait so long to speak? 

Early in high school, she said, she reported an adult harassing a peer. She said the adult was removed, but her anonymity was broken. When a better connected educator later harassed her and others, she stayed silent and left. "From a child's perspective, nothing happens," she told the board. "You report and then you still have to face that same adult every day." 

She asked any member unable to hold a longtime acquaintance accountable to step aside.

The Board's Answer: End Anonymous Comment

Gaydeski read a statement from a parent who asked to remain anonymous, arguing that Weakley's triple role as assistant superintendent, athletic director, and Title IX coordinator places student protection and institutional risk management in the same hands, and offering five recommendations, among them an independent coordinator and an external review of student-athlete physical contact reports back to 2010.

No one engaged with a single recommendation. A board member instead said the board should stop accepting anonymous speakers because the author "sounds like they should be confronted with her opinion" and "should be here in front and center for us." 

The proposal came minutes after a former student described what happened the last time her name was attached to a report. And nothing was adopted: no second, no vote, no agenda item, and comment rules are set by adopted policy anyway. 

Washington's Open Public Meetings Act requires boards to accept oral or written comment at regular meetings where final action is taken, and separately bars requiring attendees to identify themselves as a condition of attendance. 

Public comment exists so the public can address the board, not so the board can confront its critics.

The Rest of the Meeting

The board also adopted a $77 million budget, middle school educational specifications ahead of November's bond vote, and an emergency declaration seeking state money for the leaking Spartan Gym roof.